The First Qualifying Round draw for this season’s FA Cup was made and several retained members of last season’s Spartans squad will be facing a familiar opposition in the former of fellow Evo-Stik Northern Premier League outfit AFC Fylde.
However it’s not just those players who are familiar with the Lancashire based club. Assistant Manager Colin Myers faced the Coasters in last season’s FA Cup with former club Bishop Auckland seeing Bishops go down to a narrow 2-1 defeat at the hands of their higher level opponents. Myers revealed that he saw enough that day to believe that Spartans can be positive going into the tie at Croft Park.
“AFC Fylde are a fantastic club and an ambitious club. The Chairman has a lot of big plans for them and they have been successful getting a couple of promotions recently. Last year at Bishop Auckland we faced them in the FA Cup and had a good go at them. If the game had carried a bit more look we could have won it. They are a good team and we have to prevent them from using their quality which can be done.”
Last season saw Fylde complete the league double over Spartans. A 5-0 win at Croft Park was coupled with a late season 1-0 win on the Lancashire coast but Myers isn’t paying too much attention to what went on in those two fixtures and believes that there is plenty to be positive about ahead of the tie.
“Last year’s results against Fylde mean nothing. It’s a new season with new players and it’s a fresh start for both sides. Everything started fresh when we came back two weeks ago but both me and Tom know what we are doing and we know exactly where this team is going. It’s going to take a lot of hard work no doubt about it but we will get there with them and we will get it right.”